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Thread: It's Alive! - Choose Your Own Adventure

  1. #1
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    It's Alive! - Choose Your Own Adventure

    Some of you might remember my previous attempt at a Choose Your Own Adventure style game on here that fizzled out to make way for Fiction Fight. Well, I'm looking to try again and hopefully do a better job of it here. It's pretty basic: I'll write a chunk of the story and then it will end with the reader(s) having to make one of two choices that will affect how the story progresses. Then when I'm feeling ready to continue, the choice with the most votes will be what happens and we go from there. I might consider a third option that's open to suggestion, if you guys think of something better than what I've given. So, I think that's really all unless anyone has ideas/questiones, etc.. Without further ado, let's get this mofo rolling....

    ----


    Rain pours down from a purple sky, pelting the city below. A crack of thunder echos off glass, steel, and concrete as the sky flashes white with a jagged ribbon of lightning. There is no time in between. The storm is here. The time is now.
    There is a glow from the upper floor of a rundown warehouse where years of study and research, months of toil, and countless sleepless nights have reached their culmination. Florescent lights buzz overhead as otherworldly machines and equipment gurgle and hum beneath them.
    A disheveled, sweaty man rushes about the makeshift laboratory, checking gauges, flipping switches, and turning dials. He repeatedly returns to a table at its center, big enough to butcher an ox on, but on this night its purpose is at the exact opposite end of the spectrum. A white sheet is draped over what could easily be the aforementioned ox based on its sheer size and heft but its shape is human, as best as that word can describe something of such inhuman proportions.
    Thunder and lightning return in unison, and the man nods, a delirious grin trembling on his face.
    His eyes rise heavenward, staring up at a steeple-like structure that reaches up through the ceiling. He pulls a lever at its base then rushes to pulls several more on other machines, his gaze still fixed. Gryros spin, luminous liquid begins to course through tubes en route to the central table.
    Then it strikes.
    The peal of thunder is deafening.
    The lightning blinding.
    Sparks erupt from the spire.
    Everything comes together.

    The man struggles up from the cold wet concrete floor, pulling himself up among the smoking overloaded equipment.
    His eyes are now trained only on the table.
    The sheet.
    The form beneath.
    He blinks. Questions his eyes. Questions the play of light and shadow.
    But he sees it again.
    The rise and fall.
    The breath of life.

    It's alive!


    ----


    Your first choice: Choose your character: Are you the Creator or the Created?

  2. #2
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    usa
    Nice! Glad to see you return with this.

    The Creator!

  3. #3
    Intercontinental Champion Jitters's Avatar
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    The Created

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    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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    GP OG Percussion's Avatar
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    maldives
    This is rad already bruh.

    Creator.

  6. #6
    The 'me' in 'team' Dreyski's Avatar
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    Created.

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    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Stoked to see this come back.

    Creator

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    Created

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    World Champion Donald's Avatar
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    Created.

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    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    usa
    Interesting stuff.

    Creator.

  11. #11
    ◥◤◥◤◥◤◥◤◥◤◥◤◥◤◥◤ Bill Casey's Avatar
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    Both, but I don't remember it...

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    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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  13. #13
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----


    Nothing.
    Not even awareness of the nothing.
    Nonexistence.
    And then...
    ...everything.
    All at once.
    A white hot flooding of all senses, all synapses, all structures and cells.
    An explosion from within.
    It all roars to life.
    You roar to life.
    Gasping in your first overwhelming gulp of somethingness from out of the nothingness.
    There is a fire beneath your flesh as warmth and animation replace the cold and unmoving.
    There is light in your eyes but nothing discernible until a pale veil is torn away.

    You look down into eyes as equally wide as the mouth hanging open beneath them, filling the gaunt face that tops off a frail and fragile looking creature.
    This creature that pulled you out of the nothingness.
    There is a gurgle in your throat.
    Something again resonates from deep within you.
    A emotion towards this man who ignited your existence.
    But before you can make sense of it you can see that while the wideness of his features remain, there is distinct shift in his expression as awe melts away to horror and joy becomes disgust.
    He stammers and stumbles back.
    “Oh god...what...oh oh god, what have I....”

    You try to reach out and calling them “restraints” seems silly given how easily your bindings snap away.
    What you reach out with seems unfamiliar, though you control it, it seems so large and not your own.

    “No! No! Get away! Jesus, NO!”

    You lurch from the table and rise to your feet in ungainly fashion, struggling to maintain the treetrunk-like limbs that reach down to the floor so far beneath you.
    As you try to grasp the navigation of your gargantuan frame you catch glimpse of your lifegiver fleeing into the shadows.
    He has pulled you up from the nothingness but as you are now coughing and sputtering as the somethingness rushes in, he is gone.
    Everything feels off and wrong and overwhelming.
    And you face it alone.
    And it all pushes you back, bearing down on you.
    You stumble, stagger, groan, and back away from it all...

    ..until the glass breaks.

    And you fall.

    For a brief moment you think you may be returning back into the embrace of the void.
    This brief flame about to be so quickly extinguished.
    But then a heap of garbage catches you some thirty feet below the window.
    And rain and lights and night air and a city surround you.
    For a moment you lay there taking it all in.
    Feeling, listening, looking, breathing.
    You resolve to make your strange frame rise once more.
    Draping yourself with a ragged grey tarp you've pulled from the refuse you find you are now faced with something.
    Everything.

    What will you do?


    ----


    Do you:
    -go back into the warehouse to see what you can learn of your origins and perhaps find your creator?
    or
    -head out into the streets to face the unknown world?

  14. #14
    Intercontinental Champion
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    Head to the streets

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    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Head to the streets.

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    GP OG Percussion's Avatar
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    maldives
    Back into the warehouse

  17. #17
    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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    Warehouse

  18. #18
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    warehouse

  20. #20
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    3 votes for each option. Somebody break the tie or I'm going to flip a coin.

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    Change vote: warehouse

  22. #22
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    You turn your eyes upward toward the flickering glow behind broken glass.
    Your mind drowning in ignorance, your simplest solution is to return to the womb from which you've fallen.
    And so you proceed back into the building, each step slightly less shaky than the last.
    By the time you ascend the staircase amidst the desolate concrete and metal, your footing is steady and the final flight passes in only a few quick strides.
    Foul yellow-green smoke hangs in the air and you can feel the warmth emanating from the space as you breach the doorway. The tools used to ignite the spark of life were themselves ignited in the process and now blister and blacken as rainbow-tinged flames dance over them. You reach out a hand, mesmerized and drawn to this warm multi-colored light. Perhaps it is the answer.
    Pain, sharp and searing, is there to greet you.
    You recoil with a moan.
    You recall reaching out to the man who pulled you from the nothing.
    You recall a different pain as he fled in horror into the shadows.
    And so now, clutching your throbbing hand close, you decide to follow into those shadows.
    You move now with a quickness that belies your stature and so it doesn't take long before you find his balled up form cocooned in a blanket on a small cot in one of the smaller rooms.
    Here are your answers.
    Here is the one that brought you out of nothing.
    Here is all you know.
    And so you reach out once more, hopeful that pain will not be there to greet you this time.
    Your fingers brush against his cheek and you feel your lips curl upward as a contented sound burbles from them.
    His eyes snap open.
    He jolts up and immediately beats his limbs in efforts to press himself tightly against the cinderblock wall behind him.

    “NO! Stay back! Get away, damn you!”

    He paws beneath the blanket and produces some gleaming black thing and holds it out toward you.

    “Mistake! Oh, goddammit, what have I done? This shouldn't be! YOU shouldn't be! You are wrong! Fuck me, you are SO WRONG!”

    A deafening sound and a flash of light erupt from the black thing in his hands.
    That sharp searing pain you met before returns with force into your shoulder.
    Even while processing this, your other hand is already reaching out, snatching the black thing, warm in your grasp, and tossing it away with a clatter.
    You then reach for your shoulder, teeth clenching as you touch the warm wetness leaking from you, and stare at your red-drenched palm.
    He put this in you.
    This liquid life.
    And now he's put something else in you.
    A hole from which to drain it.
    But while your body has begun to move at alarming speeds, your mind's gears still turn slowly, and he capitalizes on his chance to run.
    Springing up from the cot, he ducks beneath the high arches of your frame.
    You turn to see him snatch the black thing from the floor as he heads for the stairs.
    Your step forward results in another bang and the concrete beside you bursts.

    “Don't fucking move! Don't-don't fucking do anything! Just-just stay here and BURN!”

    He shoves over a shelf laden with glassware filled with iridescent liquids that crashes to the floor and immediate roars into rainbow fireballs.

    ----


    Do you:
    -still try to follow him?
    or
    -just try to escape the fire?

  23. #23
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Follow that fucker

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    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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    follow in rage

  27. #27
    Donde esta la biblioteca Pablo Diablo's Avatar
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  28. #28
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----


    The confusion and frustration that your mind has been swimming in has heated to a boil.
    The guttural bellow of a wild animal roars out of you as you pull the tarp tight around you and like that same wild animal you launch yourself in pursuit of your maker.
    Shards of glass embed themselves in your feet, the pain throwing you off balance as you leap awkwardly through the flames.
    The tarp ignites, blanketing you with fire. Your skin sizzles. Shrieking, you shrug it off and swat frantically at your burning locks of hair.
    Still driven, you crash into the stairwell, almost leaping over the railing when you lock eyes with your goal gazing up from the bottom.
    BLAM.
    BLAM.
    BLAM.
    BLAM.
    Two of the shots explode the cement of the wall and ceiling.
    The third punches into your forearm.
    The fourth catches you in the eye socket and drills into your brain.
    You experience only a few fleeting flickers of consciousness as you stumble back into the inferno.
    As the flames consume your flesh, soon nothingness reclaims both your mind and your body.

    ----


    You have died.


    Alright, so I wanted there to be wrong choices and consequences for them. Like in the old CYOA books, you could die and you'd have to give it another go. So, as though you were reading a book, you basically have the choice when you die to restart from any previous choice or restart from the very beginning.
    So, we can go back to the last choice and pick the other option (escape the fire), go to the choice before that one (warehouse/streets), or even start over and pick the Creator instead of the Created.
    So, what do you guys want to do?
    Last edited by mth; January 1st, 2019 at 10:40 PM.

  29. #29
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    usa
    Dam. Didn't see that coming! You guys want to head out into the streets?

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    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    usa
    Let’s head to streets

  31. #31
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Heading to the streets seems best, as I feel the fire situation is a dead end. Our creator's a dick, anyway.

  32. #32
    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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    Streets.


    Is mth bandersnatching us?

  33. #33
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    I literally thought the same thing. If parallel timelines start becoming a thing, we'll know for sure

  34. #34
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    I'm not that smart nor have I put nearly enough planning into this to pull that level of thing off. I basically just think one step ahead and plan out what happens with each choice and the next two choices for each, in addition to maybe a few further out ideas that might come into play. Interesting that you guys are opting to go an extra step back. Update will probably come tomorrow.

  35. #35
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    *
    **
    ***
    ****

    A heap of garbage catches you some thirty feet below the window.
    And rain and lights and night air and a city surround you.
    For a moment you lay there taking it all in.
    Feeling, listening, looking, breathing.
    You resolve to make your strange frame rise once more.
    Draping yourself with a ragged grey tarp you've pulled from the refuse you find you are now faced with something.
    Everything.

    ----

    You take a long last look at the flames and smoke spilling from the broken window before turning your eyes to the city before you.
    The storm is fading but the rain still falls and you pull the tarp tight around you as you head into the unknown.
    While streetlights loom overhead to illuminate the way, you cling to the safety you feel in the shadows and structures that keep you as hidden as your sizeable figure can be.
    As you progress, your steps become stronger and more assured and soon you have gone from uneasy and hesitant to moving quickly and determinedly with surprising speed.
    You drift among chain link fences, concrete, and steel, fortunate to have been birthed in a desolate section of town.
    You round a corner and are startled, taken aback when you come face to face with another.
    Unlike your maker, this one's eyes are level with yours and it stares with the same unblinking uncertainty that you are giving it.
    A shaggy mane of hair frames a fragmented face, a collage of features pieced together to make a whole. The body below is built in the same fashion, a hodgepodge of parts assembled to create a much greater sum. Perhaps on paper this could all seem beautiful but upon animation it is but the scraps of the morgue and the slaughterhouse quilted together, remnants of death trying to be what they're not. But as you stare at the wretch before you, your understanding is not this full, all you know is you are nose to nose with a very frightening creature.
    You move, it moves, you reach out, it raises a hand.
    Instincts kick in and with a snarl you lash out at the threat.
    Glass shatters.
    You yelp and pull back a bleeding hand.
    Retreating cautiously, you stare at the darkness where the creature stood before hightailing it back into the dreary night.
    After a bit more wandering you come upon something intriguing.
    Among the brick and debris in a back alley is a makeshift shelter, blankets and tarps strung up into a tent.
    As you consider taking refuge here you also hear sounds in the distance.
    You look further down the street to see clusters of figures gathered around burning barrels beneath an overpass.

    ----


    Do you:
    -go into the shelter?
    or
    -go to the overpass area?

  36. #36
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Shelter. Probably taken, but fuck dealing with any more burning shit.

  37. #37
    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    usa
    Overpass

  38. #38
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Shelter

  39. #39
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Shelter!

  40. #40
    The 'me' in 'team' Dreyski's Avatar
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    Shelter

  41. #41
    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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    If I don't get some shelter
    Oh yeah, I'm gonna fade away

  42. #42
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----


    Eager to get out of the rain and to find some respite after the mentally and physically taxing trauma that has been your first few moments of this life, you approach the makeshift shelter.
    Attempting to fold your lengthy physique, you make your way into it and onto a floor of cardboard and newspaper. Wadded garbage bags, paper, and blankets create bedding of sorts. You burrow in further and stop suddenly when you feel a form beneath it.
    Your touch did not disturb it. You wait for a moment then reach out a prodding finger once more.
    Again, no response.
    The sense of threat fades and you cocoon yourself as best you can and curl up for the remainder of the night.

    ...

    "Walter?"

    A voice pulls you from a murky collage of dreams, darkness, and nightmares.

    "Walter, bud, hey, time to pay up..."

    You open your eyes but find yourself shrouded, your vision masked by the grey tarp you'd pulled over you.
    There is a rustle at the far side of the shelter and a few other voices behind the first.
    You remain still for the moment.
    Despite your veiled sight, you sense the influx of light as your sanctuary is penetrated.

    "Wake up, Walt!"

    You feel movement among the coverings.

    "Walter! Quit foolin', its--"

    The solid form beneath the blankets beside you is pulled away slightly.
    And then...

    "Ah fuck, Walt! Shit. Walt! Walter! Goddammit. I think he's dead, boys."

    Your mind cannot fully grasp the circumstances around you, all you can fully deduce is you are once again in a precarious position.
    You must make a choice


    ----


    Do you:
    -reveal yourself and confront the intruders?
    or
    -try to flee the scene?

  43. #43
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    Run like the wind

  47. #47
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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  48. #48
    The Fresh Maker Mazer's Avatar
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  49. #49
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    Tension grips your muscles. You are like a spring wound tight. The voices continue to discuss Walter's demise. You hope the distraction is sufficient. The tension releases as you erupt from beneath your shroud out the side of the shelter. But there is no stealth that will make you inconspicuous at this close range and at your size.

    "Who the--?!"

    "Fuckin' hell!"

    Their exclamations fade quickly as you move with tremendous speed and agility. You traverse whatever is before you with ease, moving, scaling, leaping, like one of the big cats. You begin to move from the desolate outskirts inward and soon find yourself entering the inhabited, active, populous parts of town. The shadows and structures again become your allies and you make efforts to remain hidden as you find yourself once again uneasy and overwhelmed as lights, cars, and people seemingly come from every direction.
    This becomes your new norm as you dwell now in the concrete jungle.
    Over the next several days you try only to survive and observe.
    You scrounge foodscraps from dumpsters and trashcans.
    You rest among the refuse, compacting yourself to fit into outcroppings and indentations in the cityscape.
    You watch. You listen. You learn.
    And you remember.
    Not much, not specific, not yet, but you remember.
    Being one of them.
    Or more than one of them.
    You remember existing in this world, though it seems so faint and far away, muddy and cold.
    You remember speaking and sometimes now as you tuck yourself in the darkness you whisper, you stammer and stutter in the night air, trying to sound like them.
    Trying to sound like you used to.
    But what you hear is someone else. Something else.
    One night you struggle and practice to hold a fork and eat some discarded noodles like they would...like you did?
    But the fork seems so small, so useless in your hand.
    And so it goes.
    For some time, this is your everyday.
    Until one day.
    You see him again.
    The first face you saw when you came out of the nothing emerges from the sea of unfamiliarity.
    But he does not walk alone.
    On his left is another young man and on his right, a woman. They smile, they laugh, they are happy.
    And you...
    ...you tremble.

    ----


    Do you:
    -follow them from a distance?
    or
    -make a public revelation/confrontation?
    or
    -leave them be?

  50. #50
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Follow them at a distance.

  51. #51
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Follow from a distance. Probably not the best move, but I'm compelled!!

  52. #52
    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    Leave em be

  53. #53
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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  54. #54
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    Someone break the tie...

  55. #55
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Follow

  56. #56
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    You breathe deeply, trying to steady your emotions. You want to run, to lunge, to come face to face with him and demand...something, anything. Truth. Acceptance. Answers. Clarity. Kindness.
    But you think better of it.
    You become the fourth member of their party albeit from a safe distance.
    You become their shadow.
    Beginning with an outdoor lunch, the day progresses and you follow, observe, study, and learn all that you can of the one who brought you forth and his companions.
    He is called Vic.
    The young man with him is Hank.
    The woman is Liz.
    There is a closeness among the trio but it is clear that Vic and Hank share something more.
    They spend some time at a shop with suits displayed in its windows.
    They spend some time at a shop selling paper.
    They spend sometime at a shop selling flowers.
    Your understanding of their words is still somewhat juvenile but you're able to piece together that they are planning something, trying to reach agreements on things, discussing something forthcoming.
    Something joyous for Vic and Hank.
    And as you remain in shadow, removed, looking from the outside in, you only wish you could have pulled up a chair. Could have shared in that lunch. Could be part of something joyous.
    But you remember the look on Vic's face and you remember him running.
    You remember the horror. The rejection.
    But as the day winds down and the sky begins to darken, their shared afternoon comes to a close and they go their separate ways.
    Each goes off alone.
    And you consider second chances...

    ----


    Do you:
    -follow Vic?
    or
    -follow Hank?
    or
    -follow Liz?

  57. #57
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Follow Vic.

    Although follow Liz is just ringing in my brain. Tough decision but I'll stick with Vic.

  58. #58
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Disregard
    Last edited by Psycho666Soldier; January 27th, 2019 at 12:46 PM.

  59. #59
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    Follow Liz. Let the two who are getting married have some peace.

  60. #60
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Oops, I read that write-up wrong. Yeah, Follow Liz.

  61. #61
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Follow Liz

  62. #62
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    I always find it interesting when you guys explain the thought process behind your pick.

  63. #63
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    After a day's worth of observation, you've gotten the impression Liz is your most hopeful option and so as the trio dissolves, you linger for a moment watching Vic, still trying to shake what stirs within you as you remember the night you awoke, but then breathe deeply and turn to follow Liz.
    Fortunately the sun has begun to dim and as you are like a shadow drifting behind her, you are soon able to meld into the night.
    After several blocks, she approaches a towering building, its spires reaching towards the night sky.
    The light from within illuminates its colorful mosaic windows and you are jolted by their similarity to the rainbow flames glowing behind the windows of the warehouse from which you were birthed.
    She slips through its large wooden doors and you cautiously follow.
    Its cavernous interior is lit almost exclusively by dozens of candles, pillars and décor surround rows of pews, all advantageous to your efforts to remain obscure.
    She initially sits in one of the rear pews and merely gazes forward at the ornate sanctuary before her.
    You find yourself awash with a sense of calm in the near silent grandeur of this space.
    But this calmness is rattled when your eyes fix upon the bloodied, emaciated, near naked corpse that hangs high above.
    Many things here feel awfully, uncomfortably familiar.
    But there is no one tending to this suspended figure, stretched out and secured upon a cross.
    No apparatuses connected to his pale unmoving form.
    The windows only glow because of their illustrated glass and not from some life giving flame.
    The calmness that had settled upon you when you arrived has quickly been stirred up into a frenzy of thoughts and as you struggle to wrestle with them you are suddenly reminded of your original intentions when Liz rises from her seat.
    She drifts into an alcove to light a candle, lower her head, and speak near inaudible words.
    Afterward, she turns, and raises her eyes toward the seemingly dead man fixed above and quietly speaks once more.
    She looks upon him.
    She speaks to him.
    This gruesome apparition.
    Without horror.
    Without rejection.
    Calmly. Gently. Invitingly.
    And you find the calmness returns to embrace you.
    You feel assured in your decision to pursue her.
    You envision yourself in his place.
    Your grotesque form before her met only with steady eye and soft word.
    Accepted.
    The candlelight gleams from the tears rimming your eyes.


    ----


    Do you:
    -reveal yourself and confront her?
    or
    -let her leave and continue to follow her?
    or
    -let her leave while you remain here?
    or
    -let her leave and go out into the night?

  64. #64
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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  65. #65
    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    reveal

  66. #66
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Reveal and confront!

  67. #67
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Reveal and confront. We came all this way. Let's do the deed.

  68. #68
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Psycho666Soldier View Post
    Reveal and confront. We came all this way. Let's do the deed.
    That's similar to my mind set

  69. #69
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    You close your eyes. Tears zig zag their way down your scarred cheeks.
    You breathe in deeply. You focus on the calm. You focus on the hope.
    You open your eyes.
    You step forward.
    From the blackness you move into the flickering orange of the candlelight.
    Much like that fateful night, you pass from the darkness into the light and stand before another and it all hangs silent in the air.
    She turns to raise her gaze though she raises it a few feet short not expecting someone of your stature.
    Her eyes climb to meet yours, growing wider as they rise.
    A sharp inhale of breath.
    She takes a step back.
    She is surprisingly quiet.
    You choose not to be.
    One word, attempted to be gentle, attempted to be hopeful, attempted to give yourself any kind of chance.

    “Please...”

    A gravelly whisper from your black lips.
    She stammers, sputters, trying to put syllables together as her eyes search you over.
    But she does not run.

    “Please...please...please...”

    You recite it like a mantra, as much for yourself as for her.
    In this place one might even say it's a prayer.

    “Who...?” she manages to utter.

    Who are you? You don't know. You are no one and yet...
    So instead you speak his name.
    A name she knows.

    “...Vic...” becomes the second word you've ever spoken to someone else.

    Her features are jolted with a look of recognition.

    “...no...oh god...Victor, no, no, no....”

    Each 'no' strikes you like a thrown stone.

    “Please,” you try again.

    Her eyes begin to dart around, scanning the dimly lit sanctuary. They linger on the crucified one.

    “Please,” you pray to her once again.

    “Please,” she prays to him.

    And for a moment, it all stands still.

    “I can't. I don't. I...I'm sorry, I...” she begins to move away, hands raised, head shaking.

    You feel it again, stirring within you, with each step back she takes, each expression of refusal.
    It's happening again.
    You look up at the wounded one hanging high.
    She keeps turning to him, speaking to him, looking to him.
    While she turns away from you.
    This place seemed so familiar, so similar, and as it turns out, second chances are becoming awfully similar to first impressions.
    And the sensation bubbling up in your chest now creeps its way down your limbs.
    Your fists clench.

    ----


    Do you:
    -let her run?
    Or
    -give in to the anger?

  70. #70
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Let her run. No sense trying to harm her, especially when she reacted in a relatively calm manner.

  71. #71
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    Leave her be. Let's not go full murder just yet.

  72. #72
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Let her go.

  73. #73
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Yeah, not the time yet.

    Let her go

  74. #74
    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    Rage.

    DTA

  75. #75
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    ----

    Anger grips you but fortunately for Liz, in this moment, it seems to bolt you to the floor rather than cause you to lash out.
    In this moment, it causes you to lower your head and close your eyes. You exhales slowly through gritted teeth.
    In this moment, you try to process and she tries to flee.
    One of you succeeds and when you raise your head and open your eyes, she's gone.
    But the red hotness of frustration and confusion still courses through your body.
    Your clenched fists tremble at your sides.
    Perhaps Liz was spared because for as much as you want to drive them into something for release, you cannot determine just who or what is deserving of that wrath.
    But then you look up.
    Your eyes meet his.
    He has been there all this while.
    This gaunt, scarred, pale figure has had a bird's eye view.
    He seemed so much like you and yet...
    ...and yet she looked upon him differently, spoke to him differently, calling out to him, reaching out to him, inviting him, wanting him, needing him.
    And now he hangs there in silence.
    He has said and done nothing and that may be exactly the problem.
    That may be exactly the cause for the red of your rage to now mix with the green of envy.
    For when you had done nothing, you were met with horror and rejection and even when you made an effort, again, more of the same.
    And so your shaking limbs have found their release.
    Like a great beast pouncing upon its prey you move in only a few terrifyingly efficient strides that move you forward and upward, vaulting off an ornate table below to tackle the crucified man from his perch.
    Wires snap lose from the ceiling above as you violently bring him to the floor in a tremendous crash.
    He breaks beneath you.
    You look perplexed at the powder that chalks your hands.
    Your face crumples with bewilderment as you touch the chunks of plaster spilling from his shattered body.
    You struggle to understand but at the very least you realize he is not so much like you after all.
    A moment of silence.
    And then...
    ...shouts, gasps, and screams cut through, echoing out in the vastness of the building, snapping your head up from the broken figure beneath your crouched form.
    You see them, a handful of people, emerging from the caverns around you, clad in black and white, some pointing, some recoiling, some with their hands clasped in prayer.
    “Demon!”
    “Devil!”
    “Beast”
    A silver haired man steps out from among them, a cross gripped tightly in his outstretched hand.
    “Brothers, sisters, please...” he commands as he continues to approach you.
    Your mind and heart race within you, your muscles tense and twitch.
    He continues to approach, uttering a slew of whispered words you cannot fathom, the metal cross held out confidently, growing ever closer.
    “Who are you? Why have you done this?” his voice is both assured and uneasy.
    You know no answer to his first inquiry and can barely assemble, let alone explain, an answer to the second.
    All you know for sure is that he is thrusting a threatening object ever closer to your face as he approaches.
    “Can you answer? Can you speak?”
    Your mind is aflame as you try to sort out your thoughts and convert them into your currently limited vocabulary but only a few gurgled syllables make it out of your throat as the gleaming cross holds your focus.
    He holds it with such conviction.
    Safe behind it.
    Making you feel quite unsafe in front of it.
    And it has become dangerously close.
    For both of you.
    “Please...” you voice once more.
    You reach out.
    The bones of his wrist splinter like balsa wood in your grasp.
    The cross clatters off the tile floor.
    Your eyes dart around at the group as they return to their initial response to your presence.
    Instincts are taking over.


    ----


    Do you:
    -fight?
    Or
    -flight?

  76. #76
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Fight. Escape seems a bit futile.

  77. #77
    My dad pinned Mr Backlund Kneeneighbor's Avatar
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    Fight

  78. #78
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    Fight fight fight...

  79. #79
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Fight!

  80. #80
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Fight bros

  81. #81
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    ----

    Confusion, anger, and fear have been swirling within you since the night you were brought into existence, sometimes calmer than others, sometimes at a simmer, sometimes rising to a boil.
    Here and now, cornered while crouching over this crumbled crucified creature, they boil over. It's as though something within your chest bursts and surges out and down your lengthy limbs.
    Your catcher's mitt-sized hand palms the plaster head of the broken statue.
    A young man standing near to the former cross-wielder turns his attention from the man to you,

    "Please, this is a house of God, and-"

    His words are cut short by the crack of his skull meeting the one in your hand.

    "Please? PLEASE? PLEASE!" you bellow, your tone shifting from questioning to mocking as you look down at the now doubly bloodied head in your hand. You toss it aside with a snarl, your yellow eyes catching gleam in the candlelight.
    A few of them scurry off into the darkness but the rest remain to contend with you and so begins a whirlwind of violence.
    What they benefit from in number you easily trump in size, speed, and strength.
    A few of them attempt to wrestle you into submission but you effortlessly shrug them off with bone and ligament snapping results.
    A woman begins to approach, her hands clasped, her voice shrieking words undecypherable to you.
    She raises her gaze heavenward and your hand snatches hold of her now exposed throat, silencing her not just for the moment, but forever.
    It flows through you now, but it is not fear, not frustration, not uncertainty, no...no, now what flows through you feels very different.
    It feels very good.
    For the first time since that fateful night you rose from the slab, you finally feel alive.
    You look down a one of them me crumpled on the floor, he raises a hand, his voice a quiet stammer,

    "..p-p-please...please..."

    You look down at him and in his shaking voice you hear yourself, in his pained and puzzled expression, you see yourself, and the one word he's uttered has been your only prayer.
    But in the heat of this moment your empathy has been burned away.
    You feel nothing but contempt for him because you feel contempt for yourself.
    For what you were only moments ago.
    Feeble and begging.
    But what you are now...

    ...what you are now grabs him by the jaw and hoists him up off the tile.
    You pull him close, your faces only inches apart. His eyes dart over your features, you feel the gasp of his breath on your hand.

    "P-" you begin to sneer the word once more but are cut short as the church doors burst open.

    "POLICE DEPARTMENT! DO NOT MOVE!"

    But you do move.
    Faster and more nimbly than they would have ever anticipated.
    The quiet darkness becomes bright loudness as they point in your direction.
    Once. Twice. Three times.
    You hear something whizz, you see the furnishings around you burst.
    This new group once again has numbers but they also seem to have something more, something dangerous.
    And so you continue to move.
    And they continue to bark orders and continue to shoot and continue to follow.
    And you continue to move until you find the night and the city and the habitat that you've become so familiar with that you soon become one with it and move through it like a specter.
    You must create distance, you must find hiding, you must move for awhile.
    Which way will you go?


    ----


    Do you:
    -go back to the industrial area?
    or
    -stay here in the downtown area?
    or
    -head into uncharted territory?

  82. #82
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Uncharted territory.

  83. #83
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Yeah, let's just find somewhere new altogether.

    Also, great entry!

  84. #84
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    Since it took a couple days, I was worried people weren't gonna vote. Thanks for the praise, Psycho. I am open to feedback on this, I have no idea if people are digging it or staying interested, if enough is happening to keep you on board, etc. Please let me know what you think, either here or by PM, maybe if you have any suggestions or plot ideas or whatever.

  85. #85
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    I think it’s because the main voters have been busy Wilfred’s and Survivor. I took a couple days just because every time I remembered there was a new post, I didn’t have enough time to read it lol.

    I’ve really dug what you’ve done so far, and feel the writing is very immersive. Hopefully others feel the same so you have the motivation to keep going.

  86. #86
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    Trekking southward you eventually reach a river that cuts through the city. Crossing one of the several bridges that span it brings you to a wooded area where you take shelter among the brush. The rush of the evening's activities still surges through your body and readily fueled a hurried journey. You look down at your hands, hands that could scarcely operate a simple fork, now proven to be able to extinguish the breath of those who would oppose you. But the hot current running through your veins suddenly runs cold as a wave of guilt chills you to the core. And so a restless night begins as you find yourself grappling with a spectrum of emotion at what you've just done. Sleep evades you as you thrill in your power and the sweet satisfaction of emotional release whilst simultaneously aching with disgust and shame at your savagery and disregard for the lives of others. Their cries of "Demon! Devil! Beast!" ring out in your mind and while a part of you is happy to live up to the accusation, another nearly weeps knowing you've done exactly that.

    Your next several days are spent among the trees, your waking hours spent trying to make sense of who you are and what you've done, trying to find peace and rest and purpose. When sleep does come, it is a scattered slideshow of images and voices, faces and places, of a life lived not since the night Vic pulled you from nothing but of a time somewhere, somehow before. A woman. A child. A house. You often jolt awake hoping to see them on the other side of slumber, or thinking even that you do, only to shake off the cobwebs and recognize the blue-grey branches are not the framework of a home nor the arms of a loved one.

    Wandering the forest eventually takes you to its other edge and you find yourself behind a chain-link fence. An expanse stretches out with a large building at its far side. There appears to be little activity when you first arrive but in time a bells rings out and soon the grassy area is teaming with boisterous children. Your lengthy form blends easily into the trees and you find yourself a spectator to the entertainment they provide. As you watch them, the joy they are experiencing in their play is infectious and brings a smile to your thin black lips, helping alleviate some of the negative emotions that have been plaguing you. Much like your days deep in the city, you once again have an opportunity to observe, to learn, and to remember. In the quiet solitude of the evening you again focus on words and speech, muttering and mumbling into the cool of the night, trying to find your voice.

    But with this joy comes something else...because you know.
    There had been someone. Like them.
    A girl.
    In your life.
    Before.

    And so as these few dozen children recess each day, you search their faces for hers. But her face in your mind is much like your face is now: fragmented and shattered. You, like Vic as he pieced you together, try to assemble these shards into a whole but all you can produce is a haphazard collage of murky reminders. Brown hair...or was it lighter? Green eyes..or blue? It's all so faded and grey. But you know there was a smile, you know there was a feeling, a connection, you know that when you see her again, if you see her again, you'll know. You'll know its her.

    "Justine!" a child shouts one mid-afternoon and it is like a knife to your heart. You almost burst through the fence as you lean forward, your eyes darting over the crowd of youngsters but the girl who answers the call draws nothing but an indifferent reaction when you see her. But now you are sure of her name.

    "Justine..." you whisper. You try to say it again but the lump in your throat holds it down.

    "Hello!" The word strikes you like a thunderbolt. You snap your head left and down. There, only a few feet away, fingers wrapped in the honeycombed wire from the other side of the fence, stands one of them, a little girl, her big brown eyes staring up at you from under a frizzy mop of black hair.

    ----


    Do you:
    -flee into the forest?
    or
    -try to engage with her?

  87. #87
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    I'll have a response to this later in the week. I'm in the middle of midterms and working on a music composition as a part of it, so I haven't had much reading time. I'm hoping others will chip in again as well.

  88. #88
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Flee into the forest. We'd probably like the engagement, but we knew where that took us last time.

    Also @Jarrod1983 @Mazer @Kneeneighbor @kdestiny Let's get some choices, y'all!

  89. #89
    Intercontinental Champion
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    Forrest. I think we need to abandon what we were before. Go elsewhere and create a new identity and life for ourselves.

  90. #90
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Engage her. Just because it ended bad last time doesn't mean it will this time!

  91. #91
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    Your interaction ends at eye contact.
    Like a gust of wind you move, rapidly retreating back into the trees.
    As you drift away, you can still hear her voice faintly calling out.
    As you take refuge among the foliage you wonder if someone so young, so innocent, so naive might have offered what all the others thus far have not.
    After all, she saw you, she stood firm, and she greeted you without so much as a tremor in the word.
    And you think perhaps if she offered you this then if you find Justine...when you find Justine...she might greet you the same.
    But another realization strikes you as you ponder: you've been seen.
    Again.
    And what came for you at the church might somehow get word of the giant patchwork man in the woods (a certain danger to the children! they would think so oppositely of the truth) and come for you here.
    Your safety is fleeting.
    And so you move.
    Following the fence around the school's perimeter, the trees begin to thin and you see what lies beyond the schoolyard: row upon row of houses.
    Memories rattle through your mind.
    The muddy, out of focus slideshow cues up once more.
    A house very much like one of these.
    A home.
    Your home...
    ...?

    The afternoon sun still shines bright and you know you need to rely on the protection of darkness if you want to move into this new area.
    You spend the next few hours in the forest trying best not to swim in your head but instead be on alert and on the move, pacing and patrolling, keeping your senses sharp, ready in case they come for you again.
    And in time, they do.
    As the forest becomes bathed in amber and crimson hues, you can hear them in the distance, creeping in from all sides. And so, like you became one with the shadows of the city you now move like a phantom in the forest, as though you are the ghost of one of the trees themselves.
    You weave among the trunks as the final rays of sun shift to purple and blue.
    Intense beams of light begin to cut through the foliage and you duck and dodge to avoid their path.
    While you are being evasive, you are also being determined, moving both to avoid detection but also to advance towards your goal and soon you emerge through the thinning trees and leap the fence as easily as a gazelle.

    Nightfall feels like a familiar blanket and brings a degree of comfort but this new region is different than the heart of the city. Shorter, smaller, more spacious. Keeping your presence discreet will require some adjusting but as you begin to work your way into the neighborhood, you find fences, porches, trees, parked vehicles, and the comfort of shadows and begin to acclimate.
    As you make your way around a house, you come upon its open garage and, peeking inside, you see a loft within that might offer respite.

    ----


    Do you:
    -take shelter in the garage for the night?
    Or
    -keep moving and look for somewhere else?
    Last edited by mth; March 20th, 2019 at 6:24 PM.

  92. #92
    Turning back time Kdestiny's Avatar
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    Think the logical option is to take shelter.

    But I want to go against that and keep moving.

  93. #93
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Yeah, keep moving for sure. I don't trust that the house will be abandoned enough to take shelter for long.

  94. #94
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Keep moving!

  95. #95
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    After giving the garage a moment of thought, you think better of it and turn to press onward. Suddenly the driveway is awash with light from a blinding pair of headlights. You manage to swing around the side in time to avoid the beams and flatten yourself against the wall. The lights turn off the with the car and as its doors open, you find yourself eavesdropping mid-conversation:

    “-our safety and the safety of our kids.”

    “You've said that and I understand that. But the cops are out there. It's one guy. I'm not going to let one guy-”

    “One monster!”

    “C'mon, Elsa. Don't buy into the media hype. It's one guy. Maybe he's six-six or something but he's not some giant scary monster. Listen, I'm uneasy about having this guy loose but the cops are combing the woods. They'll be at the school. They're out there looking for him.”

    “They didn't stop him at the church. One guy, unarmed. Maybe they couldn't stop him in the woods. Maybe he's in our neighborhood. Maybe he's—OHMYGOD! The garage door's wide open!”

    For a moment they are silent and so are you. You want to keep moving but part of you has been intrigued by what you've heard and so you stay hidden and listening.

    “One sec...”

    The headlights click back on and shine bright into the garage.

    “...be careful, Colin...”

    “Hello?!”

    You hear something metal scrape against the cement as he picks it up.

    “Anybody in here? Show yourself.”

    They are afraid and it conflicts you. Much like when you left the church, you find yourself at odds with yourself. There's power in instilling fear, being feared feels better than being rejected, it puts you in control, puts you above them and you can feel that sensation tingling through your limbs knowing the delight you could find leaving their bodies laying cold in their driveway. And yet. And yet there's another part of you that only wishes to quell their fear, to put them at ease, to assure them you only want to be accepted and understood, to perhaps be invited in and offered respite for the night.
    They are focused on the garage. You tell yourself you already made your choice to move on and this is your opportunity. You will not kill them and live up to your monster billing nor will you try to prove to them you don't deserve it. You will only leave them with an empty garage.
    You are gone.

    You trek onward until you reach a stone wall topped with an iron fence. You follow its perimeter for a distance until you reach a large sign:

    Geneva Estates

    Everything on the other side is larger, grander, the houses and lawns three times the size, ornate and extravagant.

    ----


    Do you:
    -climb the fence and seek refuge in Geneva Estates?
    or
    -continue on in the current neighborhood?

  96. #96
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    I'm gonna try and read this tomorrow and give a response

  97. #97
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Geneva Estates!

  98. #98
    OBJECTION Psycho666Soldier's Avatar
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    Geneva Estates for sure. We're probably just going to be searching from neighborhood to neighborhood.

    Also, I love how when this started, I thought we were in an old era. Then slowly you started introducing cars and whatnot. Good stuff.

  99. #99
    an affront to god mth's Avatar
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    ----

    Seconds after your decision, you are already on the inside of the fence. Sprawling out before you is a rolling lawn interrupted only by perfectly trimmed shrubbery and the occasional marble fountain before it reaches the lavish mansion to which it belongs. While your quest for a resting place is top priority, you are not overly hasty in your search and you spend the next hour or more moving through this gated community, a towering specter dwarfed by the luxury the stands proud around you. Soon, however, you find yourself once again halted by a vehicle's approach.
    A statuary grants you protection as you observe a behemoth vehicle pull up to the house after its lengthy trek up the winding drive. The driver steps out and walks around to the passenger door, opening it for the passengers to exit.
    As those passengers exit and stand, your body feels as though it were cast in the same stone as the statues around you.
    One is Victor, the other Liz.
    Were your hand gripping one of the cold figures beside you, you feel as though you could grind it to dust in your grip and truthfully, perhaps you could.
    The two embrace, sharing a light kiss on the cheek, and you catch the tail end of the conversation:

    '-to see you, as always, Liz. I assure you this will all be over soon and we will all have only happy concerns."

    "Joyous concerns, Victor, the most joyous."

    "Absolutely. Now then, Fritz will drive you home. I'm sorry I had to stop off so suddenly like this but I'm sure you understand."

    "Of course, Victor. Have a good night and I will see you again very soon."

    They embrace once more before Victor helps her back into the vehicle. He sees her off with a smile and a wave before turning back towards the house. And now, unlike the statues that surround you, you can move, and you decide you must.

    ----


    Do you:
    -follow the car to confront Liz again?
    or
    -confront Victor here and now?
    or
    -see if you can sneak into his mansion?

  100. #100
    World Champion Jarrod1983's Avatar
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    Sneak into the mansion.

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